Both men's and women's races will be taking place on Sunday (April 10), with the women starting at 11.15am and the men at 2.05pm.

There will be a 1.5 kilometre swim followed by the cycling leg, which will last for 40km before the final 10km run.

The men's field is near full strength with the top ten in the 2010 rankings all present in Sydney, including Bevan Docherty, who won last year's event.

Spain's Javier Gomez, Britain's Alistair Brownlee and Germany's Jan Frodeno will be the centre of attention as the formidable trio have not raced each other since last year's grand final in Budapest, when Brownlee won but saw Gomez claim the overall world title.

In the women's event, there will be particular attention on Emma Snowsill, as the Australian participates in her first contest of 2011.

With three world ITU titles to her name as well as an Olympic gold from Beijing in 2008, Snowsill will be expected to be one of the leading contenders in the women's field.

Chile's Barbara Riveros Diaz won the women's event last year and will be looking to repeat that success.

Potential surprise packages could include Canada's Paula Findlay in the women's contest, who surprised observers last year by winning in both London and Kitzbuhel, whilst Britain's Jonathan Brownlee, the brother of Alistair, and Portugal's Joao Silva impressed in 2010 and the youngsters will be looking to make a fast start to this year's men's series.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]